Huckabee isn't a Birther, just a partisan ignoramus caught up in Birtherism and other crazy anti-Obama conspiracy theories

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Mike Huckabee may not be a Birther, but what's with saying Obama grew up in Kenya if not to stir the bigoted right-wing conspiracy-theory pot?

Oh, he didn't mean it -- he apparently meant to say Indonesia, not Kenya.

But Obama only lived in Indonesia for a few years. He lived in Hawaii for much longer, both before and after his time in Indonesia.

So why not say that he grew up in Hawaii?

Well, while Hawaii may be an undesirable foreign place to some on the right, it's not nearly as foreign (in a dangerous, un-American way) to them as either Kenya (deep dark Africa) or Indonesia (jihadist Asia).

Sure, let's give Huckabee the benefit of the doubt and accept the excuse that he misspoke. But then why Kenya? Is it really an accident that he referred to the country at the center of the Birther craze? If he misspoke, it's only because he's deeply attached to that craze.

Consider what he actually said:

But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours...

So it wasn't just a passing reference -- and hence an easy mistake. This is straight out of Dinesh D'Souza. He didn't just say that Obama grew up in Kenya, he said that he had a Kenyan father and grandfather and that his views were shaped by the colonialist (and anti-colonialist) experience in Kenya. Actually, he grew up with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii. When he was in Indonesia, it was with his mother and her second husband, an Indonesian.

How could he possibly have meant Indonesia, as his spokesman suggests?

Personally, I'll take that excuse with a grain or two of salt.